110 
THE CALIFORNIAN SALMON. 
second year is called a “parr after they assume the silvery 
coat, in twelve to twenty-four months ; they are called 
“ smolts,” in which stage the scales are very easily removed, 
and come off on their being handled. On their return from 
the sea they are called “grilse.” After spawning the 
female is called a “ belt,” and the male a “ kipper.” 
The form of the bones of the opercular or valve-like 
plates covering the gills and forming the cheek-bones, 
affords a useful guide to identify the species, the posterior 
margin of those of the salmon forming nearly a semicircle, 
which differs in form in the other species. 
The salmon trout, or Sdlmo truita^ is a small variety of 
salmon, the flavour of which is considered by many to equal 
that of the true salmon. This fish, in different stages, is 
often taken for the Salmo eriox, with which it has been 
confounded by some otherwise good authorities. The 
parr has nine or ten cross-bars, and it is known as the 
“ orange-fin ” of some rivers. In its grilse state it is called 
“whitling,” “hirling,” or “ lammasman.” Its fiesh is of a 
rich pink colour in the best specimens, and it attains a 
length of two to three feet. It is supposed to be capable 
of living altogether in fresh water, although a migratory 
fish, and a number of them have been detained in a pond 
at New Norfolk, in Tasmania, for about twelve years. 
All the original stock have died out, but a number of 
breeding fish of two generations, and descended from 
them, are still retained, but evidently degenerate, and 
wanting in vigour ; and although they pair and deposit 
their spawn regularly every year, their progeny are delicate 
and difficult to rear, through having been so long deprived 
of access to the sea. 
The fin rays are: — dorsal thirteen, anal eleven, pectoral 
fifteen, vertebrae fifty-nine to sixty, pyloric appendages 
forty-nine to sixty-one, rarely less. In the grilse 
